sara hobolt

What will a Brexit deal look like? How does the British public view controversies over budget, jurisdiction and immigration? Our panel of leading experts will look at the negotiation stance of the British government and the EU, and present new evidence on British public attitudes towards Brexit.

The British are indifferent about many aspects of Brexit, but Leave and Remain voters are divided on several key issues

While the public have voted to leave the EU, it is less clear what that means in terms of policies around key aspects of EU membership. Sara Hobolt and Thomas Leeper (LSE) examined public opinion on various dimensions of Brexit using an innovative technique for revealing preferences that asks survey respondents to evaluate bundles of negotiation outcomes. Their results suggest that while the […]

The Brexit debate through social media: deliberative discussion, or deliberate dysfunction?

Using over 35m tweets collected in the year before the Brexit referendum, Ken Benoit analyses the debate and campaign through social media to track the framing, the argumentation, and the patterns of communication about the issues and consequences of the vote. LSE academics Sara Hobolt, Jennifer Jackson Preece and Jean-Christophe Plantin contribute to the discussion. You can also watch the slides with […]

Video: Britain is an outlier when it comes to the strength of Euroscepticism

While Britain is an outlier when it comes to the strength of Euroscepticism, the anti-immigration and anti-establishment sentiments that produced the referendum outcome are gaining strength across Europe. Analysing campaign and survey data, Sarah Hobolt shows how the issue of immigration dominated the campaign, while ‘Project Fear’ ultimately did not succeed in persuading most voters.

Voters have punished the ‘elite’ – and this is not just a British phenomenon

The UK has voted to leave the European Union. Sara Hobolt writes that although the result has come as a shock to Britain and the rest of Europe, the signs were there that the Leave campaign could win and the discontent among British voters is mirrored in many other countries across Europe. Voters took the opportunity to ‘stick it to […]

Which argument will win the referendum – immigration, or the economy?

On Thursday, British voters are asked to choose between remaining in or leaving the European Union. This choice may appear deceptively simple, but the issues are complex. The long and divisive referendum campaign has presented voters with a multitude of opposing arguments, facts and even falsehoods. But which arguments have resonated most with voters? Sara Hobolt and Christopher Wratil […]

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